I absolutely believe that one day in the next 20 years, mobile video will be far bigger than online video.

Once the user experience allows consumers to stream video with no lag, and a perfect experience every time, the morning commute or other periods of downtime will suddenly be filled with rich, entertaining video content.

The question I found myself asking recently though is who will make that content? The obvious answer is the production companies that are already making it. The obvious business model would be the networks acting as a vehicle, or dumb-pipe, and merely transporting other people’s content to their users.

However, when mobile video is accessible to the vast majority of consumers, would it not make more sense for mobile networks to create their own unique, fantastic content that can only be accessed on their network?

O2 have worked tirelessly to be the mobile network of choice to music fans, and have had significant success with that. Orange is the mobile network for film fans with Orange Wednesday’s a huge media hit. So what if in 20 years’ time these networks were offering a full programming schedule available only on their network?

Using modern day properties for examples sake, imagine if The Inbetweeners were only available to watch if you signed up with Orange? This would allow networks to differentiate in very real ways, and charge a premium for the pleasure of being a part of that brave new Orange world (other networks are available). The programme trailers could be available to all, on all networks and devices, but full episodes would only be available to watch on their parent mobile network.